ABOUT #OFFG

Our names are Sean and Katharine Madden. Together, we came to Christ in the summer of 2015 while living in the Austrian Alps south of Salzburg. We’ve been living nomadically since May 2012 — slow traveling around Europe and Britain — an adventure which continues to this day, and with no end in sight.

Before coming to Christ, Sean had been an atheist for 35 years of his adult life, while Katharine had spent 17 years following a “spiritual path” known as Subud. While Subud people range from those who believe in God to those who believe in a vague “higher power”, Katharine had always believed that God existed and that He is our creator.

Although Sean had read key books of the Bible as part of his first of two graduate degree programs in philosophy and classics, West and East, he decided during our first summer abroad (2012) to download a copy of the King James Bible onto his phone, to begin rereading the gospels, poolside, while camping outside Vichy, France. This time, the Book of Matthew rang decidedly true, and he read it again that autumn, while we were living in Burgos, Spain.

Shortly thereafter, Sean decided to delete his entire music library, both from his iPhone and from his laptop computer, even though he has played both acoustic and electric guitar since his university days. He’d come to realize, through much research, what the agenda behind the music was that he’d been idolizing alongside his peers and, now, across many generations, both before and after his own.

Sean began to write about his growing faith, both on his own blog as well as for a well-known truth community website for which he was asked to write an essay on the topic of our emerging faith which was, daily, bolstered by way of our (bootstrapped) nomadic travels. As a result of the many literal miracles we experienced on the road, we began to realize that this was all God’s handiwork, showing us that He was caring for us as a means to continue to draw us to Him.

But it wasn’t until the Summer of 2015, after hearing a thorough yet concise gospel presentation online, that we wholly understood our need for salvation. Immediately thereafter, we called upon Jesus Christ to save us.